Eric Clapton Announces North American Live Dates for 2017

Eric Clapton has scheduled a handful of North American live dates for 2017.

The shows, four in all, will be evenly split between Madison Square Garden in New York and the Forum in Los Angeles, and are scheduled to take place between March 19-26. They continue a trend of limited touring for Clapton over the last several years. In 2015, he marked his 70th birthday with a series of gigs in London and New York, and earlier this year, he settled in for a stretch of performances at the Budokan in Tokyo.

Clapton's increased reluctance to take the road is referenced in the press release announcing his 2017 dates, which quotes a note he wrote for the tour program published for his 70th birthday shows. "I know I've been threatening retirement for the last 50 years, but I didn't think I'd ever really want to stop," he admitted at the time. "I love what I do and always have done, but over the last few decades I've found what I was always really looking for, a loving family who love me just the way I am, which means I can relax and rest when I need to, and more and more I treasure the beauty of that."

Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan are scheduled to join Clapton as special guests for the shows, with tickets set to go on sale to the general public on Dec. 3 at 10AM local time. Chase customers will have access to a special pre-sale starting Dec. 1 at 12PM ET.